The Open Studio / Krishna Ganapati
Krishna Ganapati
Rescaping
The ground, opened strip by strip, shows what was taken
A grey field cut into standing boards.
The pale sky shows only in thin gaps at the top.
Charcoal and ash sit thick, with grit you could lift with a fingernail.
Between them, scraped lines bend like wind over cut grass.
Small twists of gold rest in the dark soil like rusted wire.
On every second strip the earth lies open.
The work
Krishna Ganapati grew up in Mavinkurva, near Honnavar, among farmland, coconut plantations, laterite soil, the sea and the backwaters. Ganapati has watched that land change. In Rescaping the large canvas is divided into tall strips. Some strips hold dark, gritty layers, like the side of a dug pit. Others carry scraped, swirling lines. Charcoal, ash, jute and glue build up the surface. The aim is not to picture a landscape. It is to show what has been removed, added, changed or left behind.
In the artist’s words
“I don't want to just represent a landscape. I want to show the layers of what has happened to it: what has been removed, added, changed or left behind. I am interested in working with materials that have some connection to the land or to human activity.”
- Theme
- Land changed by people
- Material
- Charcoal, ash, jute, emulsion and synthetic glue on canvas
- Size
- 152.5 × 213 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1
- Framed
- No
- About the artist
- SN School of arts and communication, University of Hyderabad
- From
- Hyderabad
- Code
- RC-418
